Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well further to yesterday's adventures with my M4-2, I went and shot a roll with it at my son's playschool. I noticed again the aforementioned faint right side edge of the next largest frameline set and I decided I was going to fix it. I have never had a top plate off a crank rewind M but how different could it be? So I took off the bits and pieces specified in the M2 book I have and consulted Tomosy's Repair book as well. NOT EVERTHING WAS MENTIONED IN TOMOSY"S BOOK AND SOME OF IT IS WRONG!!! Be very careful if you are following his instructions as he misses one ring and once has you turning a fastener in the wrong direction! It was easy to spot when I looked at the threads. I also think his method of removing the rewind crank to be pretty likely to toast the rewind coupler. I have disassembled and repaired diesel injection pumps amongst other things so I felt pretty comfortable with all the teeny tiny little odds and sods. I had to make up a tool or two out of spare SS plate I had lying around so it took a while to get the top plate off. It should be much quicker next time. Once inside it took only a half turn on one adjustment screw to straighten things up. It is a little hard to check your work as one of the things you remove is the eyepiece. You have to hold it up against the prism and squint as best you can. Having done all that, would I do more in depth work? NO, it takes a great deal of experience and the right tools to set up a M camera properly and I will cheerfully pay for that experience. I only did this because I would have had to send it across the country to get a good Leica tech to do this very minor adjustment...and, what the H***, I was curious. Some comments: The stamped frame counter, big deal! Some people have complained about the fit of the M4-2 top plate. Mine fits like a glove. If it were any tighter a fit, you would not need fittings to hold it on. The big big big glass prism scares the H*** out of me! John Collier - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html